1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to workout devices, and more particularly, to a workout device characterized in that the user's hands and feet revolve in the same direction while exercising with the workout device.
2. Description of Related Art
Due to technological advancements and economic prosperity, people's living standards improve continuously, so does the demand for leisure and recreation, such as fitness workouts, travel, and shopping. Workouts are carried out either indoors or outdoors. Common indoor workout devices abound and include elliptical trainers, treadmills, flywheel bicycles, large weight training devices, and workout benches. The elliptical trainer guides a user's feet to follow a substantially elliptical unending path in order to take cyclic exercise. Exercising in this way not only approximates to walking or running as far as the lower limbs are concerned, but also has less impact on the user's knee joint and ankle joints. Hence, elliptical trainers are popular with consumers and thus manifest continuous market growth in recent years.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,480 discloses an elliptical trainer that enables a user's feet to move along a substantially elliptical path, because a supporting rod has one end for performing a circular-path motion in conjunction with a crank mechanism and has the other end whose motion is restricted to sliding along a linear path and reciprocating; hence, a specific portion of the supporting rod follows a substantially elliptical path. U.S. Pat. No. 7,682,290 disposes that one end of a supporting rod for use with a user's foot is pivotally connected to an external end of a crank to thereby restrict the supporting rod to a circular path, and discloses that the other end of the supporting rod is pivotally connected to a bottom end of a swing arm and restricted to a curved path for swinging back and forth. However, the aforesaid patents focus on foot-specific elliptical path movement, but make the user's hand hold on to a handlebar for swinging back and forth monotonously. In view of this, Taiwan patent M252461 discloses: an elliptical trainer for simulating upper-limb movement, characterized in that: a primary frame having one end connected to two handlebars; the handlebars each having a bottom portion pivotally connected to a front end of a pedal, wherein the end of the pedal is pivotally connected to a rotational body (such as a flywheel) peripherally; two other pedals positioned oppositely and relative to the rotational body and each performing alternate cyclic movement along a virtual elliptical path, thereby allowing the handlebars to perform elliptical cyclic movement in synchrony with the pedals. However, the aforesaid elliptical trainer simulating upper-limb movement features a substantially circular path along which each of the hands swings, and in consequence the swing of the hands is not based on ergonomics.